He was released from Napa State Hospital after being there 9 months. Napa was giving him the Invega shot once a month. He came back clear headed. We started going out to dinner together. We went to the movies. We were having good talks. My son handled his affairs. Then Turning Point became his mental health service.

Six months into their program, Turning Point took my son off Invega shots and put him on Prozac. I fought them tooth and nail. He spiraled down to where he became missing and homeless. Turning Point had told him they had no where to house him. They filed a missing person report on him and didn't tell me. When I filed my own missing person report with Sacramento City Police, I learned of Turning Point's missing person report.

My son stayed homeless for almost 2 years sleeping on Sacramento sidewalks. Of course, I was right there with him. Finally, he was 5150d. When he was being evaluated to see if he was competent for trial — which he wasn't - Turning Point showed up for a meeting with the physicians and were royally chewed out. A doctor told them he could not believe how deteriorated my son was. They were ordered to leave the meeting and Telecare, which is no better, took over.

When my son was 5150d, I persuaded the doctor to put him back on Invega. It's been a long crawl but I'm happy to announce he's doing the best of best when someone has serious mental illness. My son is so much better now. What I love most is we can have conversations with little disorganized speech. I want this to last forever but, as we all know, schizophrenia is selfish.

All of these so called mental health services are shitty. All of them. Turning Point, Telecare, Tcore. They are shitty, shitty, shitty. Excuse the bad words but, honestly people, I can't describe them any other way.

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Hi! Thanks for stopping by.

My goal, with Blog 1: Your Stories, is to help bring our stories of serious mental illness — and how it impacts individuals, our loved ones and our families — into mainstream discourse.

My goal, with Blog 2: My Diary, is to tell my story and my son's story - my struggle, as a mom of an adult son with serious mental illness, to somehow align both joy and sadness in my life; and Pat's brave efforts to live with bipolar disorder. I didn't know, as I was writing my diary, that I was capturing the last year of his life.

I hope, with these two blogs, we'll see increased understanding and movement toward better mental illness care. Sooner than tomorrow...

Hope you're having a good day.

Dede

DISCLAIMER: I never was or ever will be a psychiatrist or psychologist. The mental illness comments and information I post on this website and on these blogs shouldn't be taken as advice or recommendations. People in need of mental health and mental illness assistance should see their mental health/mental illness providers.

P.S. Our stories can be heartbreaking. Once a week or so I try to include a HAPPY PIC to lighten our load. If you have a HAPPY PIC (original photo or artwork) to share, please send it to me. dede@soonerthantomorrow.com

P.P.S. The opinions expressed by other writers on this blog are their own. I respect them even when/if I don't agree with them. Their stories need to be told. And heard.